A female Conservative MP has complained at the "ridiculous" new
rules which prevent her from playing football for the Parliamentary football
team because she's a woman.

Tracey Crouch, 35, the MP for Chatham and Aylesford in Kent, is a right winger or centre forward who has played for both the 11-a-side and five-a-side teams alongside her male colleagues.

However, the Football Association recently took over the running of the 11-a-side team and under its rules only girls aged 13 or under can play in mixed teams.

Miss Crouch, a keen Tottenham Hotspur fan, said: "I don't want there to be an exemption for me but it seems ridiculous that adult women can't decide if they want to play alongside men if they're good enough.

"It's right that girls can't play alongside boys over 13 - the physical factors are too obvious - but it's ridiculous to apply those rules to something like the Parliamentary football team."

She insisted that she could hold her own against her male counterparts, who include Jim Murphy, the shadow defence secretary, Andy Burnham, the shadow education secretary, and Karl McCartney, the Tory MP for Lincoln.

Asked to give an example of how her skills compared, she said: "Well, I once nutmegged [put the ball through the legs of] Jim Murphy, which might give you a hint. Besides, the Parliamentary team is hardly the Premier League.

"The men's game is fast, more pacey, but women can be more technically adept. If you put a member of Arsenal Ladies team into a men's Sunday League team, I think the men would be surprised."

Miss Crouch is also a qualified football coach and FA referee and has managed Meridian Girls U13s in Kent for three years.

The FA agreed to increase the age at which girls can play in mixed teams from 11 to 13 after Emily Lewis-Clarke, a schoolgirl from Devon, won a battle on the topic.

Th 11-year-old, who plays for Newton Abbott 66 Football Club, got more than 6,000 signatures before handing her petition in to the FA - which agreed the new rules last week and will bring them in next year.